Trese

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Comics & Graphic Novels
Author:	Budjette Tan & Kajo Baldisimo

I just HAVE to share this with someone..

While I was browsing the web, I managed to stumble upon this website (http://tresekomix.blogspot.com/) which had a few stories available online for free and began reading what appeared to be an interesting locally-made comic based on Philippine folklore..

I was hooked after just a few panels of the first story..

It chronicles the adventures of one Alexandra Trese, who is a paranormal investigator contacted by the police whenever "crime takes a turn for the weird".

The various cases shown in these books portray the protagonist tackling a wide assortment of characters from Philippine mythology like dwendes, tikbalangs, aswangs, etc. They also showcase a range of possibilities as to how these creatures of the dark could be roaming the streets of modern-day Manila hidden away in plain sight.

Tan's excellent writing paired off with appropriately stylized artwork by Baldisimo makes Trese a very interesting read, and a worthwhile series to collect.

BrainiaxMD's Creamy Potato Soup

With time probably running out on my cooking days, I decided to take another risk and try my luck in making cream soup from scratch. :D It was a lot of hard work, and I was nervous that it wouldn't turn out well. Good thing it did though, and now I can proudly add another recipe to my repertoire. :P I used:

4 potatoes, finely chopped

2 whole onions, finely chopped

1 tsp cooking oil 

approx 1 liter of water

1 tbsp rock salt

1/2 tbsp ground black pepper

1 pc Knorr Beef cube (for the beef stock)

1 medium can Alaska Evaporated Milk

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 pack of bacon bits

After sautéing the onions until they turned transparent (or translucent at the very least :P), I placed these along with the potatoes in the water at low-medium heat. 30 minutes later, I put in the salt, pepper, and the beef cube. The whole thing was left to boil at low heat for about 2 hours to soften the potatoes. I know this may seem a little unconventional, but I was forced to mash the potatoes manually using a wooded spoon while in the pot since I didn't have a blender handy. I then put in the milk and flour during the last 30 minutes of cooking prior to dinner. The bacon bits were fried and were placed into the soup upon serving. Sarap! :D

Bohol-boholan

A couple of days ago, I went on a trip with mom to the island province of Bohol. We were fortunate enough to be invited to tag along with my uncle's family who generously  shouldered our accommodations. (we paid the airfare ourselves of course!)

Bohol is located in the Central Visayas region, consisting of Bohol Island and 75 minor surrounding islands. Its capital is Tagbilaran City. With a land area of 4,117.3 square kilometers (1,589.7 sq mi) and a coastline 261 kilometers (162 mi) long, Bohol is the tenth largest island of the Philippines. (source: Wikipedia). Tagbilaran airport (TAG) is roughly an hour's flight away from Manila (MNL)

It was a thrill for me to be boarding a plane again (don't travel much :P) and this was only the second destination via plane that I would be going to, the first being HK. (I have a VERY small travel map). As we made our descent towards Tagbilaran Airport, I looked out the window and saw all these little islets and the corals visible underneath the clear bluish-green waters! Once over the island itself, I was treated to another surprise! 

Bohol's famous Chocolate Hills

According to Wikipedia (again), the latest survey puts the total number at 1,776 hills. That's a whole lotta bulubundikin if you ask me. :P Looking out the plane window, there were numerous little hills stretching out as far as the eye could see (we were already flying pretty low at this point). I was a bit surprised upon landing 'coz the pilot suddenly applied the brakes. The Boholano guy sitting next to us said that the runway there was short, thus necessitating the abrupt stop.

Tagbilaran Airport

Upon landing, I discovered that riding along with us on that plane was none other than former Sec. Art Yap (XS'83)! :P

We got our stuff and met this guy who worked for a car rental company. The dude's name was Nonoy and he told me he'd been working as a tour guide/driver around Bohol for the past 15 years. We were a party of 10, which fit nicely in the brand-spanking new Toyota Hi-Ace we rented. We then got started with the tour.

Sanduguan Monument

Our first stop was the Sanduguan Monument where the original blood compact between Rajah Soliman and that Spanish dude was said to have taken place. Nothing much to see here except the actual monument which presented as a photo-op to kick things off on our 3-day adventure.

The next place we went to was a "factory outlet" of Bohol products ranging from Tarsier keychains to their "famous" Peanut Kisses. We bought a few things for the people back home but generally held back due to our small budget and the thinking that there might be better deals to be found elsewhere..

Baclayon Church interior

After that short shopping spree, we climbed back aboard an Nonoy took us to Baclayon Church, one of the more famous Spanish-era churches in Bohol. It also boasted of a museum but we didn't bother to enter since they wouldn't allow camreas inside. :P Of greater interest to me what what I saw outside.

They were selling candles of different colors, representing different prayer intentions, at 20 bucks each. I personally got one each of red, yellow, and green for intentions related to residency..

Horizontal Traffic light

As lunchtime neared, we were then driven to the shores of Loboc River for their famous Loboc River cruise. At the docks, tourist would purchase tickets from one of four (?) companies operating the riverboats/floating restaurants, and people would probably base their choice on the menus presented to them.

The winning menu

Having picked this menu/company, we were then given our tickets and shown our way to the docks where our boat was waiting.

Ticket

The food wasn't exaclty anything to write home about, and I don't think the ingredients were as fresh as you'd expect from something as "rural" as this, but it was eat-all-you can, and at 400 bucks/head plus the river tour with onboard entertainment, it didn't seem like such a bad deal.

 Eat all you can :P

The tour would have been nice, had it not been for the fact that when we were just barely 200 meters out, the boatmen steered the vessel close to shore because our engine had died out and we had to await a rescue boat! We wasted about a good half-hour's worth of time before we were finally underway again, but the agitation quickly dissappated as wee took inthe sights and the cool breeze of the place.

 Ahoy there, GIGABOAT!!

There were a lot of other river cruise boats travelling up and down river. After all, this was probably a prime tourist spot. I also notices a lot of floodlamps along the riverbanks which were probably used to illuminate the trees on night cruises. Judging by the way the place looked, a night trip would be spectacular.. (must try it if ever I go back ther :P) A minor gripe I have would be the relatively poor quality of the river water. It wasn't even near Pasig River-dirty, but I noticed that the waters were pretty murky, especially when I saw a pool of fresh untainted water flowing into the river. The water quality of this inlet was EXCELLENT! It was crystal clear and you could see to the bottom. Its just a shame that all these boats needed to run on gas, which probably caused the relative opacity of the waters of the main river..

 Shoreline cultural show

While we ewre sailing along, the locals had this small stage on the riverbank where we stopped and were treated to a sampling of the local dances like Kuradang and Tinikling, which was a treat for the foreigners.

Kuradang

As expected, there was a donation box set up alongside the boat so that tourist could drop their hard-earned cash as payment for their momentary amusement. :P 15 minues later, we were off again. The service crew on board told us we would be making our way towards a waterfall where the river started. A waterfall huh? That'd be cool..

 Waterfall..

Wait, what? This is it? Oh well.. And I guess our riverboat captain was a wuss, as we turned around probably 150 meters away from the falls, while we saw other boats go for a much closer look. Hay..

Chowtime was now over, and our driver took us to one of the most popular destinations in Bohol...

 Chocolate Hills (from my cam, the previous pic was from wikipedia :P)

We were going to one of the mose centrally located (and I guess tallest) among these great piles of stone and soil, stategically developed to offer tourists the best possible panoramic view of the hills. AFter climbing around 200+ step (which left mom and her sibs pretty winded), we reached the top where the scenery was beathtaking, although it was a little crowded with all the other tourists there. :P

The Well

There was even a wishing well at the summit, with a bell that you rang after you dropped a coin and made a wish, presumably to tell them that you enjoyed the tacos. :P

Overlooking the base of the path

Luckily, the trek downward wasn't as bad, as there was this gently sloping but less scenic route which took us back where we started.

With aching bodies all around, our driver still had a couple of surprises in store. First up was a Butterfly preserve (sorry didn't get the name) where we were shown the different stages of butterfly development and some unique butterfly-related stuff, including sniffing vanilla-flavored butterfly poop freshly squezzed out of the butterfly itself. :P Despite my inferior cam, I was able to snap a few decent shots of butterflies feeding on one of those honey-dipped sponges they have around which serves as attractants.

 Butterfly shot!

The (supposedly) last stop on the day's tour before we were taken to our resort was at Loboc Forest Camp which housed Bohol's natve Tarsier.

Tarsier here! Yay! :P

To be perfectly honest, the place didn't seem like much, with different species of wildlife in cages as follows:

Grass Owl

Crested Serpent Eagle

Brahminy Kite

However, they had this...

 Albino Python and friend :P

Yes folks, I had a moment of temporary insanity where I said to myself that I just HAD to do it. :P It was surprisingly not as slimy or heavy as it looked. Instead of feeling like pure solid muscle, it was more bones and loose skin. In all the excitement, I totally missed the Tarsiers which were housed in the cage directly oposite me in the picture! :P

Since the place had the facilities for it, I also took time out to try this as well..

Zipline!

It was a pretty short ride, but thrilling nonetheless.

We exhaled deeply as we boarded our ride, exhausted from the all the running around that occurred. We left the main island of Bohol and crossed a bridge to the island of Panglao, which was still part of the province, where our resort which was supposedly "50 meters from the beach" could be found. While on the road, we made a slight detour at the request of my vegetarian cousin who had heard about the Bohol Bee Farm. Apart from the obvious bee product of honey, they had a lot of other stuff there as well like mango, corlander, pesto, malunggay spreads, honey salabat (ginger ale), honey tea, and even their own ice cream (which unfortunately did not come in honey flavor).

Villa Almedilla facade

It was already dark when we got to the resort. It was a small building, more like an apartelle if you ask me. The rooms were cozy and spacious enough, I believe it costs 2500 Php a night for a room for two (but I guess it could fit 2-3 more people had there been extra matresses). There was cable TV and a shower with a heater, and the place had wifi as well, but the connectivity was terrible. We were told that we could have dinner along the beach, where the seaside resorts had all these by-the-beach dining areas. We ate at the Bohol Divers' Resort which had a small cultural show that was held ever Saturday and Sunday.  

Dancing girls

Firedancers

These performers were members of that resort's staff as well, so I guess they save on extra salaries and benefits. :P

Having eaten our fill, we trudged back to our rooms and retired for the night...

DAY 2: Water adventure

Dawn in a banca

The following morning found us aboard a banca at around 6am headed out to go "dolphin-watching". Well, it was more like dolphin-chasing if you ask me. :P

The Boatman

We spent about an hour chasing after what seemed to be a group of dolphins swimming in the distance, after which an entire fleet of these motorized outriggers similar to the one we were in would converge at the area of the sighting. Naturally, the dolphins would dive and hide, as these motors made so much noise you could hear them a mile away.

Convergent fleet

After that fruitless pursuit, the boatman suggested we head to Balicasag Island to continue our adventure. There we had our brunch on the beach consisting of grilled fish, squid, and pork. While the elders stayed behind, we cousins went out to go snorkeling. It was my first time to snorkeling and what I witnessed was just MAJESTIC! Man, I wish I had that waterproof case for cameras! I won't go into detail with regards to the marine life I saw, but man, it was great!

After about 30 mins to an hour of mindless roaming near the coast with our head facing down in the water, we went back to shore to pick up our folks and visited this little island the locals called "Virgin island" where there was no fish to be seen, but the sand was just EXCELLENT! It was so fine and powdery, and some likened it to the sand at Boracay (but I've never been there, so the comparison ends here).

the sandbar

A unique feature of this island is that it has a submerged sandbar extending out to sea which, from a distance, makes you look like you're walking on water.

At this point, everyone was starting to feel a little tired, so we headed back to Panglao to rest up and have lunch.

As with all vacations, you can't really expect everything to go right.. but I'd rather not rant about a particularly bad experience we had there, so as not to ruin all the fun memories in this entry.

The rest of the day was a blur for me, as I spent the rest of the day in the room, going out just to have dinner at that same seaside place.

DAY 3: A few last stops..

Our third day started a little later. :P We had already packed our things the night before, and had checked out already before 8am when our driver was scheduled to pick us up for our last roubd of the island. We first went to hear mass at a nearby church (sorry forgot the name). AFter mass, we had brunch at  Chicken Ati-Atihan

Chicken Ati-Atihan

Having eaten our fill, we then visited another roadside wildlife attraction, and there they had another python.. a MUCH BIGGER Burmese Python weighing around 300 kgs! Naturally, my response would be to do this..

Snake wrangling :P

The handler said this one is fed a WHOLE 30 kg pig once a month. Too bad it wasn't feeding time when we dropped by. It would've been amusing (though it won't be for the squeamish).

Our next stop was the Watchtower in Punta Cruz in the town of Maribojoc. This was a Spanish-era lookout point which faced the southwest, towards the direction of Panglao island.

The watchtower

The structure was neat. It was this squat little structure which had a wide view of the sea it safeguarded, but we didn't linger as it was already too hot to be out in the open. (and it was quite hot in the shade as well) :P

For our last "nature stop", Noynoy took us to Antequera to see the Mag-aso falls,so named due to the fine spray the water produces upon impact on the rocks and stream below.

A long descent (and ascent :P)

197 steps is really a long way down, especially for the elders in our group. I'm just glad there weren't any adverse events that happened along the way. Making our way down, we heard the distant splashing of the waterfall. After a short trek, this is what we found..

breathtaking..

Apparently, these falls have a sinister side to them, as there was a flash flood last year which resulted in the deaths of two unfortunate individuals who were bathing in the river at that time. A tourist was able to catch the flash flood on video, and one of the locals made a tribute video on youtube.

In rural settings like these, I guess its only natural that this incident would be tied in to local folklore. The mythological explanation was that when the flash flood came, it was heralding the arrival of a diwata or fairy, and that those two individuals were "taken" by the fairy that came and went, probably because they were not respectful of the place.

Island City Mall

Our last stop before heading to the airport was the Island City Mall, which acoording to our guide, was the largest mall in Bohol. We were thrilled at the prospect of going malling at a new location since most of us were mall rats. :P

Bohol's biggest mall, was, er.. not so big.. :P It had three floors, a foodcourt, a department store, a supermarket, 3 movie theaters, a National Bookstore outlet,  some specialty boutiques, and a handful of the usual fastfood restos like Jollibee, KFC, and Chowking. It was interesting to note that there was no sign of McDonald's anywhere. :P

Taking up the explorer's challenge, I set out to get lost in this new place, only to finish my trek in about 15 minutes.. :P You can't really blame them. Bohol is just an island, and is relatively sparsely populated at that. There's no point in making a big mall with lotsa merchandise if you have no one to sell to. :P

To cut things short, we made some last-minute shopping before hopping back on the fan for a 5-minute ride to the airport.

Our ride home!

 Overall, it was a really nice place, well worth another visit sometime in the future. :P Don't mind my minor gripes, I'm really just like that. Hehe

Thank you to the people of Bohol, especially to our driver Nonoy, for sharing your island paradise with us! :D

On the Retreat

Just came home this afternoon from a retreat held in Tagaytay for the XS Alumni. This was probably one of the best decisions I ever made, and will hopefully have a long-term impact on my life..

It was a Silent Retreat, which was in the Ignatian contemplative tradition. I went there not really knowing what to expect besides some quiet time to pray and reflect, with occasional lectures and masses on the side. Little did I know that after going there, my life would probably never be the same (I hope!)

*the entries below were written at the retreat house after I had finished with my daily reflections

Day 1: August 13, 2010  9:30 PM

Well, here I am..

I'm presently at St. Scholastica's Center for Spirituality here in Tagaytay on a 3-day Ignatian Silent Retreat put together by Fr. Zuloaga for the alumni.

My room

According to dad, there was this teaching in Xavier (which I hardly recall ever learning) that "God is in the silence". Hopefully this retreat will allow me to reconnect with God on a more deeper level.

Day 2: August 14, 2010  9:30 PM

Day 2 is finally over.

Chapel exterior

After a series of talks by Fr. Manoling Francisco, SJ interspersed between 3 full meals and 2 snacktime breaks, the main day of my silent retreat is over. Apart from the talks/sessions, we had time set aside for confessions/consultations with the priests, as well as the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and time for adoration.

side view of the chapel

I won't get all "churchy" here in my blog, but I have to say that I have learned a lot about my faith over this weekend, which far exceeded whatever expectations I may initially have had. Sad to say, but the Christian Life Education we receive as a grade school or high school student is woefully inadequate, as most colleges don't really teach in-depth theology (save for a select few, or if your course IS Theology). Having time to reflect on scripture and how it affects our daily lives has been such an eye-opener for me, as I previously couldn't comprehend what people get out of all these "bible study" groups. Heck, I didn't even understand what people got out of daily Scripture reading on their own.

Solitude

I would highly recommend going on retreats like this as it serves not only to "deepen your faith" or some other similar abstract concept we can hardly wrap our minds around, but I guess it helps fill this a certain emptiness inside of you especially if you seem to have lost your way..

St. Benedict reading in the garden

The same way that learning feeds the mind and eating feeds the body, reading scripture feeds the soul. I'm really grateful for the wonderful opportunity to experience this unique way of looking at our faith, and I will definitely go on another retreat when the opportunity would next present itself. :D

Now THAT'S a ballgame!!

What a turnaround!

After that terrible experience of watching the UAAP, I was in for an unexpected treat yesterday in a doubleheader featuring UST vs UE and FEU vs AdU.

The first game wasn't really anything to write home about. It featured the UE Red Warriors getting a much-needed victory to start off the second round of their season against the 3-point shooting UST Growling Tigers.

Kudos to Paul Lee and company for bouncing back after that disappointing first round which saw them drop to the bottom of the standings, staving off last place with a win against perennial cellar-dweller UP.

The game was close for the most part, but UE bust the game wide open during the 4th quarter and never looked back. AS usual, UST's utter dependence on three point shooting never fails to astound me.. Sure, the hadworking Chris Camus had his minutes cut short due to early foul trouble, but UST still has a bunch of effective (albeit undersized) forwards who are more than willing to pick up the slack. One such player is Melo Afuang, who really did everything he could for UST's cause. I hate the fact that UST lives and dies with the three point shot, when it has a vast arsenal of scoring options if only one looks hard enough. C'mon Coach Pido, I know you were a shooter in your day, but shooters alone do not win basketball games! :(

When compared to other teams, UST seems scared to operate close to the basket. The basic UST play revolves around giving a whole lotta screens for the guards in order to free them up for a trifecta, which more often then not, results in a miss and a fastbreak by the opposing team. :P Once you shut down the shooters, the Tigers seem lost. As expected, they lost to the resurgent and very well-balanced UE team that may have finally got it's bearings, and UST drops down to 3-5. I know the UST lineup is composed of a bunch of greenhorns as the seniors of the team are only 3rd year, but COME ON!! I've seen rookies on other teams play with more heart and guts than this UST roster!

The most frustrating thing of all of this is that I'm from UST and root for the Tigers. Changes have to be made, and fast..

The first game made me so angry that I broke out a bag of microwave popcorn and settled down to watch the second game. I had not intended to watch but needed to wash down the stupid UST performance.. and I'm glad I did, as I was treated to one of the best ballgames I've watched thus far this season! :D

With FEU and AdU at number 1 and 2 respectively, this seemed to be a wothwhile game. FEU had swept the first round and was looking to continue this all the way to the finish. I have to admit that I had my doubts about Adamson, what with their team's reputation and all, but this year's bunch seemed.. different.

I wasn't disappointed, as I was treated to high-octane, disciplined, methodical, and high-performance basketball all throughout. You could see the players' confidence in the way they moved and switched the ball around.  There was good execution and the players were very patient in running their plays. The shooting was insane as well, with FEU putting up a staggering 81% field goal shooting at one point during the first half! Despite the high-percentage shooting, this was coupled by good defense coming from both teams.

FEU was up in double figures at the start of the 4th quarter, but AdU was able to claw their way back up and even took the lead during the last 3 minutes of the game. Of course it helped that FEU's shooting this quarter had turned really sour, but Adamson was not really that much better off. :P

Adamson eventually won the game by one point off an Alex Nuyles drive with 6 seconds remaining. With AdU trailing by one, the ball was inbounded from the sideline coming off a timeout. Nuyles got the ball and was momentarily open when Exceminiano gambled on a steal. The layup didn't go it but the putback by Eric Camson gave them the lead with 2.2 seconds to go. FEU had no timeouts left and was forced to inbound from the other end of the floor. A desperation heave from half court didn't go in and Adamson ran away with the victory.

Whew! What a game! :P

*a shoutout goes to my good buddy Jovi, who is the #1 prowler on my blog. :P Thanks for your continued patronage! Hehehe

Nakakawalang-gana

Bah..

I was absolutely disgusted by the officiating that I witnessed during the dying seconds of the ADMU -UE game a while ago..

The refs called a dubious foul on a UE player during an inbound play with less than a minute remaining. I really have my doubts with this call, because there wasn'tany werious contact going on, and on the flipside, I saw then allowing ADMU's guards to get  physical with UE's backcourt while the latter were bringing down the ball.. Parang di kasi tugma yung call sa huli dun sa takbo ng officiating for the rest of the game..

Another thing I found appalling was that they even slapped a technical on UE coach Lawrence Tiongson when he was pleading his case to the refs. As far as I saw, he just went down on his knees, and that was it. He wasn't raving like a madman or cursing the refs to hell. As a result, ADMU got 4 free throws with ball possession to add to their lead. Obviously, they won. What a heartbreaker for UE, who came so close to winning but any hopes of it happening were crushed by the strange officiating those final seconds. I know ADMU had a sizeable lead prior to what transpired, but it was still within striking distance. Who knows what could have occurred? Staranger things have happened in the UAAP. Now we will never know..

I love watching the UAAP games regardless of what school is playing, but  just lost my appetite for what seemed to be an exciting season.. :(

2012

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

It my seem a little weird, but I'm a fan ofapocalypse-themed movies. It's not because I have this weird sadistic streak which wants to see everyone killed off, but rather I find myself fascinated by the struggle to save humanity, to protect our way of life, and how people would eventually start anew (although this last one isn't usually shown at all before the movie ends).

*SPOILERS AHEAD

Keeping up with all the hype surrounding the apocalyptic prediction of the Mayan calendar which puts 2012 as "the year" in which a great cataclysmic event would destroy the world as we know it, Columbia Pictures gives us the creatively titled "2012", a film built around the premise that a solar event of massive proportions would cause the Earth to erupt in chaos.

For this review, I won't go into charcters and their development since these seem to be of little consequence in a story as grand as this, so forgive me. :P Besides, when I sat down and thought about it, the story would have gone this way anyways.

The concept is intriguing, if not somewhat silly. A huge solar flare is released from the sun's surface. Normally, solar flares would throw a harmless amount of subatomic particles like neutrinos our way. Since the solar flare in question is said to be massive, they are numerous enough to cause a physical reaction. In this case, they are heating up the Earth's core! THis is where it starts to make sense.. With the core heating up, the layers beneath the crust heat up as well, becoming more fluid and thereby destabilizing the crust. This results in massive seismic activity around the globe, giving rise to super-volcanoes, causing numerous powerful earthquakes, and effectively fissuring the Earth like a clay pot on a really-really hot day. :P The fun dosen't stop there, as plate tectonics also involve the oceans, triggering MASSIVE tidal waves that swallows up continents whole. Another interesting take on the whole thing was the shifting of the earth's magnetic fields, causing the south pole to be located in.. Wisconsin? :P

Upon recieving this alarming news of what was to come, the nations of the world begin a top secret project to save humankind (or at least a small portion of it) before its too late. A select number of individuals are taken into these giant "arks", which unfortunately were not spaceships as I previously thought (boo!). These arks would enable the last vestiges of humanity who are safely aboard to ride out the worldwide tidal waves when they hit. Nestled deep in the Himalayas, the arks would be relatively safe from the crust going loco and would only have to contend with the massive amounts of water coming afterwards. Oh, did I mention that they would be taking in animals too? Coz you can't have an Ark without animals, you dig? :P

The selection of people who would come aboard and save their asses was pretty obvious. The would get the best and the brightest that humanity would have to offer, to ensure that the best genes would survive (?). Obviously, the ultra-rich would be welcome aboard as well, after paying a hefty sum (1 million Euros/pax if I remember the movie right). I admire the realism of the movie in this regard. I had a fleeting thought that a lottery would have been a much fairer way to determine who lives and dies, but announcing a lottery would be tantamount to dooming the entire race. Going public abould the impending disaster with the dire news that there are only very limited seats available for survival would cause widespread panic, massive unrest and worldwide anarchy since humans would naturally put their own survival first. Harsh words indeed, but if the riots did happen and conflicts did escalate, nobody might make it to the arks alive.. or maybe a few douchebags who were able to forcibly take control and save their asses. Makes you wonder what kind of good post-apocalyptic society would spring forth from that, huh?

Things go a bit awry when the process of the core heating up goes faster than expected. The call for evacuation is sent out and the "chosen ones" make a mad scamble towards the mountains. The people are loaded into the ships, just as the tidal waves come forth over the FREAKIN' HIMALAYAS! After surviving the initial impact (which the arks were supposedly built to withstand), I would assume that they went about aimlessly while waiting for the waters to go down. Finally, after a couple of months, they are able to unseal the hatches as they set sail to repopulate the Earth with Africa as their starting point as the entire African continent had risen thousands of feet since the disaster and was presumed to be out of the water already.

Like I said, it definitely woul have been interesting how they would reestablish society and make a new beginning, but sadly, it's just a movie, a disaster movie at that. The happy ending provided, and whatever happens next is often left up to your own imagination.

4 1/2 out of 5 since the suspense scenes really kept me on my toes and the disaster they showed was nothing like I've ever seen before. I mean, I've seen "worse" planet-busting situations, but there wasn't really anything exciting going on when Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star. :P

Impetus

*as defined by Dictionary.com

im·pe·tus

   [im-pi-tuhs] 

–noun, plural -tus·es.

1.

a moving force; impulse; stimulus: The grant for building the opera house gave impetus to the city's cultural life.

2.

(broadly) the momentum of a moving body, esp. with reference to the cause of motion

Everyone needs a little something to get going, whether it be a reward, a sought-after objective, or just a pretty darn good reason for doing so. In any case, receiving a little push never hurt, as long as it is towards a worthwhile goal

Especially if the goal happens to be SURVIVAL. :P

Fortunately, my need for stimulus is not as dire as the picture above. In a few weeks, I'll be starting over again (hopefully). It's not really starting from scratch as it involves going back towards a path I had previously mapped out before. Now that I've had my "time in the sun", I'm ready to get my life back on track. :D This time, things are gonna be different, as the years past have given me a sense of peace and a great deal of wisdom as compared to when I first attempted to follow this trail.

I hope.. no.. I KNOW that everything will go smoother this time around. ;).

We have a CHAMPion!

One of the commercials frequently shown during UAAP timeouts is the ad for Jollibee's Champ Burger with its 1/3 pound beef patty which, as the commercial emphasizes, is "bigger than a quarter pound". :P Quite a cheeky move poking fun at the other fastfood giant that starts with an "M"..

THIS brand perhaps?... :P (pic source)

After around half a season of drooling at the commercial when it shows the tender, juicy patty, I finally decided to give it a shot. I haven't eaten a Champ for over a year already, and my last McDonald's burger (Big Mac I think) was around a couple of weeks ago. This being said, I was ready for my "Championship test" with very little recall of how heavy a Champ supposedly was.

As luck would have it, I was a little lazy today and thus settled on delivered fastfood for lunch. Since I was eating alone, I had to make my order fit into the Php 200 delivery limit, which resulted in upsizing my value meal (which I usually do anyway if I'm ordering burgers) and ordering a sundae on the side. :P

I've also got a thing or two to say about the fries, but this will be covered in a subsequent article. To be clear, I have a standardized order when I eat my fastfood. I finish the fries first since these tend to get soggy when cold, after which I then eat the burger, before finishing off with whatever "fillers" I ordered to make the delivery limit (alternatively, I may save those for merienda later on). When I opened the "burger box" as I like to call it, the first thing I noted was that the burger had this piece of wax paper around it. This totally kicked ass in my opinion, since I didn't have to get my fingers messy as I ate the burger. :D Seeing as I wouldn't get anywhere with comparing it to the Quarter Pounder (for obvious reasons), I began to contemplate while munching on my burger. As I was finishing up, I can honestly say that there was a perceptible difference. The Champ was definitely more satisfying than the Big Mac (sorry McDo!). Although both may be said to be equally filling, the Champ gave me more "satisfaction" because I was apparently eating more beef (and the fact that McDo patties are usually dry as hell :P). Oh, It also hurts the Big Mac that I seem to be eating a whole lot more bread than meat.

As a side note, I noticed that McDo's burgers have been getting smaller, similar to those small-ass things Dunkin Donuts pretends to pass up as, well, donuts. :P

No, not that!!

Anyways, this is my two cetavos' worth on the matter. Looks like Jollibee wins this round.. for now..

picture source here

 Ikaw, anong burger mas type mo? :P